In the service: Harry Riley, of Colchester, had a 19-year career in the U.S. Navy and served on several submarines, including during the Korean War. Riley entered the Navy in 1948 at age 18. He attended a six-week training regimen at the submarine base in Groton before his first submarine assignment, which brought him to Pearl Harbor. Riley served on both diesel engine and nuclear-powered craft, as an engineman, and later a chief engineman. “We were responsible for the air, the water, the hydraulic systems on board,” he said. “We even made our own oxygen.” He was on board a submarine at the start of the Korean War. “The night the Korean War broke out, we were on patrol in Hong Kong,” he said. He also was active during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, at the height of the Cold War. “We did a lot of patrolling, and that’s about all I can say about that,” he said. Riley later served as an instructor at the submarine base in Groton for three years, he said. He covered basic diesel engines, hydraulics and air compressors. Riley said he had opportunities to thoroughly learn the various systems for the submarines he served on. “We would be out at sea for 90 days, then ashore for 90 days. And 60 of those days would be for classes,” he said. Riley attained the rank of chief petty officer.

Life after service: Riley, 84, said he served on a half-dozen submarines, including the Patrick Henry, the Sea Owl, Torsk, Balao and the Wahoo. He had a wife and six children at home in Colchester, making it difficult to be away for long stretches, he said. “It wasn’t the ideal situation to be in,” he said. He retired in 1967 as a chief petty officer. He went to work at an injector shop at Cummins Diesel in Hartford. Then he worked for 15 years for Schuster’s Express truck company in Colchester, which later was sold to Pilot Freight, he said. “I used to rebuild engines,” he said. Finally, he retired completely in 1989. He has lived in Colchester for 54 years. He still has a cap he used to wear as part of his uniform. “But it doesn’t fit anymore,” he said.

Quotable: “One of the things I remember most is being on a submarine going from the West Coast to the East Coast. We were coming from Pearl Harbor. And I remember going through the Panama Canal. It was very big, and I just remember thinking I had never seen a canal that big. It took a day to go through it. I also enjoyed Pearl Harbor when I was there. It was nice. It’s grown a lot since then.”